Mother’s Helper / Daddy’s Helper
ISRAEL WHINES AGAINST MOSES
Scripture Reading: Exodus 16:1-17:7
Israel was good at finding things to complain about. They complained about the water, and now about insufficient food: “Would we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh‑pots, when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
They complained Moses was starving them to death.
Moses took the problem to God. God gave them manna in the mornings, and caused quails to come in the evening. They had both bread and meat to eat.
The manna was small grains. Daily they were to gather an omer (about five pints) for each person in the family. It was not to be kept overnight. Some tried to do so but the next day it contained worms, God told them to gather twice as much on the sixth day of the week, because there would be none on the ground the seventh day. Yet some of them on the seventh day were looking for the manna. There was none. God instructed Moses to gather an omer of manna to save for future generations. It was stored inside the Ark of the Covenant, an article of furniture in the most holy place of the tabernacle.
In Numbers 11:14 Moses told God, “I am not able to bear all this people alone; because it is too heavy for me.” Every time the people were displeased they came to Moses. God gave Moses seventy elders to help bear the burden of the people.
One such problem concerned the Israelites’ desire for flesh to eat. When Moses appealed to God, God was so angered with Israel that He said, “Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days, but a whole month, until it come out your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you; because that ye have rejected Jehovah, who is among you, saying, ‘Why came we forth out of Egypt?’” God gave them quails around the camp about two cubits (3 feet) deep. Exodus 16 and Numbers 11:1‑35 tell the full story.
In Exodus 17 the people are again out of water. They complained to Moses. God told Moses to strike a certain rock. Water came from the rock for the people and for their cattle. Water was also produced from another rock (Numbers 20:2‑13). On the second occasion God told Moses to “speak” to the rock before all the people, but Moses struck the rock with the rod. That was not what God had said. Consequently God told Moses, “Because ye believed not in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
Moses really did want to take the people into the Promised Land, but in a moment of anger, caused by aggravation of a complaining people Moses lost that opportunity.
Questions
1. What was Israel good at doing?
2. What was their complaint now, and whom did Israel blame?
3. What were they given each day?
4. How much were they to gather on the sixth day? Why?
5. What did Moses tell God in Numbers 11:14?
6. What did God give Moses to help?
7. What was their next complaint and how did God answer it?
8. What was Moses told to do to the rock in Numbers 20:2‑13?
9. Did Moses do exactly what God told him to do?
10. Why was Moses not allowed to go into the Promised Land?
Observations for Parents and Children
1. A complainer is poor company for man or God. The complaints finally catch up with the complainer, and the consequences are felt.
